24 Hours a Day

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
If you don't believe the Bottle Rockets are contenders for the title of world's greatest rock & roll band, you should check out their 1994 release, The Brooklyn Side, the decade's best rock & roll record: an out-of-fashion, unhoped-for blend of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Clash, funny and scary and catchy all at once. It was so good it was released twice--first on the late, lamented indie label ESD and then again on Atlantic. That's why it took three years for the follow-up, which was actually recorded in July 1996, to emerge. Because less is at stake in the songs, 24 Hours a Day isn't quite as good as The Brooklyn Side, but it's a remarkable piece of work just the same.

Like the Blasters, the Bottle Rockets realize that roots are not an empty suit to hide in but a pair of shoulders to stand on so one can reach even higher. The four scruffy musicians from Festus, Missouri, can sound like fading Grand Ole Opry stars on an understated country song like "Dohack Joe," and they can sound like a Southern-rock bar band on an overstated rocker like "Slo Toms." These familiar formulas give the Bottle Rockets an entrée into the Middle America they spring from and speak to, but the band strips the forms of their predictability and sentimentality. The quartet plays with a sort of controlled anarchy, as if at any moment they might leap into epiphany or fall apart altogether--and that creates a suspense that makes you want to listen to each new measure. And lead singer/chief songwriter Brian Henneman is so quick to laugh at his own protagonists that the blue-collar romanticism of Mellencamp and Petty is boiled away to reveal lives as they're actually lived. --Geoffrey Himes --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

24 Hours a Day
Average customer rating:

Solid Middle America rock-n-roll...

Love it!

Great album from an "unknown" band.

I'm Gonna Settle This Argument Right Here

Things you didn't know

24 Hours a Day
Bottle Rockets
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Ada
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000005J6F
Release Date: 1997-08-12

Tracks:

Kit Kat Clock
When I Was Dumb
24 Hours A Day
Smokin' 100's Alone
Slo Toms
Indianapolis
Things You Don't Know
One Of You
Perfect Far Away
Waitin' On A Train
Dohack Joe
Rich Man
Turn For The Worse

Amazon.com

If you don't believe the Bottle Rockets are contenders for the title of world's greatest rock & roll band, you should check out their 1994 release, The Brooklyn Side, the decade's best rock & roll record: an out-of-fashion, unhoped-for blend of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Clash, funny and scary and catchy all at once. It was so good it was released twice--first on the late, lamented indie label ESD and then again on Atlantic. That's why it took three years for the follow-up, which was actually recorded in July 1996, to emerge. Because less is at stake in the songs, 24 Hours a Day isn't quite as good as The Brooklyn Side, but it's a remarkable piece of work just the same.

Customer Reviews:

Solid Middle America rock-n-roll..........2006-01-14

...and that's a good thing! Although I saw these guys open for Steve Earle years ago I somehow managed to overlook them. My loss then is my treasure chest now! I love to "discover" bands like this that have a catalog of underrated and overlooked songs which are better than 95% of the crap that fills corporate radio these days. I guess Festus MO is too country for rock and too rock for country when it comes to radio programming. Solid songwriting, jangly and growling guitars all over the place, plus a band that takes music serious but doesn't take themselves too seriously and you have a really good album that sticks in your head. Chuck Berry meets Wilco backstage at a Steve Earle show. Pick it up!

Love it!.......2005-11-11

Makes me want to make a trip to Slo-Toms. Let's Go Down to Slo-Toms.

Great album from an "unknown" band........2004-04-29

I love the Bottle Rockets. They're a breath of fresh air and deserve to be heard by the masses. The first half of this record is tremendous, even if they put down Indianapolis. Like most Bottle Rockets records, it slips a bit on the second half but all in all is definitely worth a purchase!

I'm Gonna Settle This Argument Right Here.......2003-04-21

Have you ever heard two people arguing over the relative merits of The Bottle Rockets classics, The Brooklyn Side and 24 Hours a Day? Me neither, but I suspect it has happened at some point. Maybe the best way to resolve this argument is to compare track versus track. Here goes:

Welfare Music vs. Kit Kat Clock: Are you kidding me? Welfare Music is brilliant both musically and lyrically, while Kit Kat Clock is merely a very good song with silly lyrics. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side.

Gravity Fails vs. When I Was Dumb: Both great songs, but Gravity Fails has a little more kick, and again, When I Was Dumb has sillier lyrics. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side

I'll Be Comin' Around vs. 24 Hours A Day: Talk about a tough one. Both excellent songs, with I'll Be Comin' Around rocking and sweet and 24 Hours A Day rocking and funny. I'll go with rocking and sweet. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side

Radar Gun vs. Smokin' 100s Alone: Another challenge. These songs are both great, yet totally different. Radar Gun rides a filthy ZZ Top-ish riff and amusing lyrics to glory. Smokin' 100s Alone is a tuneful depressing tearjerker. Like Mariah Carey, I don't wanna cry. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side

Sunday Sports vs. Slo Toms: 24 Hours a Day finally gets on the board with Slo Toms and its crunchy riffs. It doesn't get much cooler than when Brian Henneman suggests they head on over to Slo Toms to check out `Gary play Sweet Home Alabama on his Peavey guitar.' Advantage - 24 Hours a Day

Pot of Gold vs. Indianapolis: Pot of Gold is charming and simple, but Indianapolis is one of the best songs The Bottle Rockets have ever written. It'll make you think twice about making a road trip through Indiana, that's for sure. One thing I can't figure out: Is Brian being sincere or facetious when he says he `hopes they play that John Cougar one more time'? Advantage - 24 Hours a Day

1000 Dollar Car vs. Things You Didn't Know: 1000 Dollar Car is clever and catchy. Wish I could say the same for Things You Didn't Know. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side

Idiot's Revenge vs. One of You: This one's also not even close. Idiot's Revenge is a rocking account of some pretentious chick who thinks if "you like country music, then you deserve to die." By contrast, One of You is slow and a bit dull - you keep waiting for it to build up to something, then nothing happens. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side

Young Lovers in Town vs. Perfect Far Away: I could go either way on this one, though give the nod to Perfect Far Away since it does such a nice job of ripping off the riff from Michael Jackson's Beat It and manages to incorporate the lyric `she ripped through this heart of mine like a weed-eater with brand new line'. Advantage - 24 Hours a Day

Take Me to the Bank vs. Waitin' on a Train: Take Me to the Bank recalls Bocephus in a relatively good though derivative way. Waitin' on a Train is catchier and more original with a nice guitar solo in the middle. Advantage - 24 Hours a Day

What More Can I Do vs. Dohack Joe: What Can I Do is the only weak song on The Brooklyn Side, sounding like a bad alternate version of the Rolling Stones' "Far Away Eyes". "Dohack Joe" is pleasant if mildly ineffectual. Tell me, what exactly is `that java face' anyway? Advantage - 24 Hours a Day

Stuck in a Rut vs. Rich Man: This where things start to become a blowout. Stuck in a Rut is a cool grinder that sounds like it wouldn't be out of place on Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gimme Back My Bullets album. Rich Man starts out with some nice picking but ends up sounding uninspired, telling the tired tale of a rich man who works so hard he forgets to enjoy life. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side

I Wanna Come Home vs. Turn For the Worse: I Wanna Come Home features some sweet, though sad, lyrics and even sweeter guitar. Turn For the Worse is a good song, but listen to what it is competing with. Just listen to it. Advantage - The Brooklyn Side

Queen of the World vs. Nothing: The Bottle Rockets didn't even bother to record a 14th song for 24 Hours A Day. Wise choice. It's unlikely they could have come up with anything to rival Queen of the World anyway, a classic tear in your IBC song if I've ever heard one. When Brian describes that girl "singin' Hank Williams when (he) walked through the door", you can picture the scene. For me it conjures up images of a twenty-something Connie Criswell crooning Your Cheatin' Heart at the bar in the late, lamented Olde Towne Pizza. Queen of the World probably sounds a lot like something Hank would have recorded if he'd been alive in the 1990s instead of the 1940s. Darn near perfection.

Final Score: The Brooklyn Side 9, Twenty-Four Hours a Day 5

Ratings: The Brooklyn Side 5 stars, Twenty-Four Hours a Day 4 stars

Advice: Buy them both, fool!

Things you didn't know.......2001-02-08

The Bottle Rockets are not the second coming of the Beatles. There is nothing on this album that's originality will lay your mind to waste. What you will find is solidly written songs, excellent musicianship and a pervasive sense of humor.

Brian Henneman got his start with Uncle Tupelo, cutting his teeth with the best this then emerging genre had to offer. While this album has not received the aclaim that "The Brooklyn Side" has, it stands on it's own merit.

A friend of mine told me once that "Smokin' 100's Alone" was perhaps the stupidest song he had ever heard. I will admit that this portrait of trailer-park isolation may not be everyone's idea of stimulating lyrical content, but it does paint a picture in vivid detail.

Henneman's gift is telling the stories of a regular life, asking the questions we have all wanted to ask "Who knows where time goes? I waste mine thinking 'bout it, I suppose" and places it within rock and roll's most current and exciting format.

The Bottle Rockets are one of the few bands today who are putting down in the studio exactly what you will get in the bar or concert hall; loud, raunchy rock with a heavy back end, gravel-edged vocals and real life reflections on everyday situations.

If you're looking for alt.country hooks and humor with a grinding metal backbone, look no further than 24 hours a day.

24 Hours a Day: The Best of Barbara Pennington
Average customer rating:
24 Hours a Day: The Best of Barbara Pennington
Barbara Pennington
Manufacturer: Hot Productions
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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